a warning about Google Play

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jack_norton
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a warning about Google Play

#1 Post by jack_norton »

They suspended my dev account today. As I posted in my own forums:
So... rather hilarious to be honest. They shut it down because of "multiple violations".
Some "violations" were showing women with SOME cleavage (not even that much!). Women in BIKINI (which is of course an obscenity!!!) and then a false copyright claim (they were wrong since someone claimed to be the Bionic Heart author haha).

Anyway, today they blocked me, I can't access the developer account anymore. All is gone. I'm not even bothering to get it restored to be honest since it was a mega pain every time I wanted to update something...

On iOS they're still there, not sure for how long/if they will follow the Google censorship madness. But I don't plan to release new games on iOS either.

I'll probably focus on PC only which is a MUCH MORE developer friendly environment than mobile.
So just an heads up. If your game is 100% family/kid friendly, OK. But even just a girl in bikini can get your account suspended and all your mobile money/fans gone in a day. Not something to build up a business on... :evil:
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#2 Post by Donmai »

If a flying saucer's pilot ever approaches you saying "Take me to your leader", just direct him to 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California. I don't know if the alien's going to really find there what he's looking for, but chances are people there will do anything they could to convince him that he's gone to the right place. It seems they really believe they've been ruling the world for quite some time.
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#3 Post by verysunshine »

Doesn't Google Play have an age rating system? If it was tagged correctly, the cleavage and bikini shouldn't have been a problem at all.

Build the basics first, then add all the fun bits.

Please check out my games on my itch.io page!

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Re: a warning about Google Play

#4 Post by jack_norton »

Nope, that didn't matter. Basically all my games were rated 18 (I exaggerated on purpose since there wasn't even any nudity) but still they removed them.
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#5 Post by Imperf3kt »

Google doesn't host games rated R18, their highest rating they allow is MA15.
Warning: May contain trace amounts of gratuitous plot.
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#6 Post by Andredron »

Slowly novels move to Nutaku....

I remember my friend blocked in Google Play, because he portrayed a teenager girl who sold lemonade in a stall. Blocked with the words: they say in the United States came a new law prohibiting the exploitation of children .... Something like this. It was funny, and I had to redo the whole game by cutting out that girl from the plot.

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Re: a warning about Google Play

#7 Post by jack_norton »

Imperf3kt wrote: Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:05 pm Google doesn't host games rated R18, their highest rating they allow is MA15.
Well anyway, I guess a woman in bikini should be allowed at any age? :D
This was one of the images for why they removed my game...
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same image was fine on Amazon Appstore and itunes.

Anyway, I'm putting my games on itch.io where I'm sure nobody will bother me for silly reasons like this (it's enough to mark games with adult content even when there's none).
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#8 Post by Imperf3kt »

I'd personally classify that as sexual innuendo, which should be MA15 at most.
My best guess would be they didn't like the excessive cleavage since that style of bikini is classified as an intimate style.
Of course, it's not much worse (and in some cases, more tame) than what I'm exposed to at my local (lol) beach
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#9 Post by jack_norton »

Another examples:
https://twitter.com/pcmacgames/status/1 ... 3330469893
https://twitter.com/pcmacgames/status/1 ... 2514666497

(I wanted to hotlink the images but it won't let me show any bigger than 800px size which is a bit ridiculous, but whatever).

A smart company like Valve when they had this problem simply created an adult content tag and enforced it. Problem solved. Everyone gets what they want.
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#10 Post by jack_norton »

Oh and I forgot about this real gem!! LOL this was another image considered "unappropriate for all audiences" :lol: :lol: :lol:
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SUPER MEGA CLEAVAGE EH????? DANGEROUS! LOL
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#11 Post by Imperf3kt »

"adult" isn't merely related to the images.

Regarding making an "adult" category
- Its not cheap (all those ratings Google hands out are not free)
- Its fraught with legal complications regarding what is legal in one country, and illegal in another (sometimes even interstate within the same country)
- Google doesn't want to host adult content. Making a category for something they don't want sounds rather counter-intuitive, doesn't it?


With regards to the two images in your previous post, the first image describes an act of violence - strictly against Google's terms of service, even if its just text/a story.
The second image is not loading properly for me, but a cursory glance at the thumbnail shows no obvious reason they would refuse it classification.

In case it isn't obvious, I'm taking neither side in this, I'm just casually providing my experience as an unbiased bystander.
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#12 Post by jack_norton »

I could find games promoting violence (real one, not just two sprites with zero blood on them) in 2 second search on Google Play...sniping games where you take down men, etc with realistic 3d art. Not posting links because I don't like that. Double standards? :D
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#13 Post by Imperf3kt »

Google doesn't take down a game that breaks their TOS until they're aware of it. Have you reported these games?
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#14 Post by jack_norton »

Nah, I don't have time to waste honestly! Also in the end it's their store so they can do what they want. I'll focus my efforts on desktop only from now on.
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Re: a warning about Google Play

#15 Post by papillon »

Imperf3kt wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:33 am With regards to the two images in your previous post, the first image describes an act of violence - strictly against Google's terms of service, even if its just text/a story.
This is incorrect.

The rules ban graphic, gratuitous depictions of violence or other dangerous activities, such as the promotion of terrorism, self-harm, eating disorders, animal dismemberment, shock images, etc.

Describing a sentence that mentions a punch being thrown off-screen as "strictly against Google's terms of service" is deliberately misleading.

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